Milwaukee drops security personnel ordinance

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The City of Milwaukee rescinded an ordinance requiring employees whose job responsibility is to maintain the security of a premise to be licensed, bonded and insured.

Milwaukee City Ordinance 84-55 was passed March 21 and included onsite employees, an establishment’s contractor or an employee of a third-party security firm hired by a business. On April 3, a group of businesses filed a complaint against the ordinance saying it “not only stands in direct conflict with Wisconsin state law but also violates fundamental principles of due process and constitutional rights.” It further cited the ordinance’s vagueness, overbreadth and effect on civil rights. A judge later put the injunction on hold.

Now the city has withdrawn the ordinance, which attorney Emil Ovbiagele, a partner at OVB Law & Consulting S.C., calls a win for businesses. Ovbiagele filed the injunction against the ordinance and filed a brief for summary judgment in the case.

“We are pleased that the city has finally made the right decision. Milwaukee can be a challenging environment for businesses due to excessive red tape and ambiguous licensing rules that needlessly grant disproportionate power to local alders,” he said. “With the law now rescinded and its enforcement stayed citywide, this is a significant victory for small businesses and workers.”

From the beginning, Ovbiagele said the ordinance was flawed.

“From the outset, (the ordinance) was illegal and destined to fail in achieving its intended goals. Instead, it would have imposed an unnecessary financial burden on small and minority-owned businesses,” he said. “At its core, the ordinance was regressive, likely to unjustifiably exclude many workers from the private security profession, particularly people of color, while drastically increasing operational costs for small businesses and their owners.”

As previously reported, Milwaukee City Ordinance 84-55 was proposed in response to the death of Isaiah Allen at a northside convenience store. Prosecutors accused William Pinkin, who was working at the gas station as a security guard, of shooting Allen after he left the store without paying for snacks. Pinkin was convicted of homicide in 1990 and spent time in prison. He was released in 2018 but went back to prison the next year and was released again in March 2023 – and had been banned from carrying a gun. The store’s owner did not run a background check on Pinkin before hiring him.

In his brief to the court seeking summary judgement, Ovbiagele wrote the ordinance violated a 2015 state statute (Wis. Stat. Sec. 66.0408), which preempted local governments from enacting such licensing rules. Since the City of Milwaukee did not have a regulation in place on Nov. 13, 2015, it could not add one at a later date, according to court documents.

“The City of Milwaukee’s attempt to impose licensing requirements on private security professionals is a clear overreach of its authority and directly conflicts with Wisconsin state law. It is a well-established principle that cities only exercise such authority as they receive from our state constitution and statutes,” according to the brief for summary judgment.

The brief also outlined how the Milwaukee ordinance’s guidelines go beyond what is already required by the state and also “unlawfully restricts the ability of individuals to engage in the profession of private security.”

The City of Milwaukee did not file a brief in the case.

“This not only affects his immediate financial stability but also impedes his efforts towards rehabilitation and societal reintegration,” according to the court documents.

In addition to Miller, other plaintiffs included Revel Group, Inc., Always Towing & Recovery, Inc., 5700 Court LLC, Holt Logistics Corp. and 7330 Development LLC.